UPDATE (11/19/25): PETA has reported that after an over two-year suspension of monkey imports from Cambodia, a whistleblower has revealed that Charles River Laboratories has convinced the U.S. government to reopen the Cambodian monkey trade.
In 2022, United States federal agents arrested eight people from Cambodia and Hong Kong after it came to light that endangered long-tailed macaques were being kidnapped from national parks and protected areas and trafficked around the world to die painful, torturous deaths in laboratories, including in the United States.
According to the indictment, this environmental crime was driven by corruption within the very agencies responsible for protecting these vulnerable animals. High-ranking officials, including the Director General of the Cambodian Forestry Administration and leaders within the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, took bribes and payouts to allow wild macaques to be shipped out of the country using forged documents claiming they were captive-bred.
Tens of thousands of endangered macaques were ripped from their forest homes, torn from their families, and forced into a pipeline of terror: captured, crated, shipped overseas, and ultimately tortured and killed in laboratory experiments.
In 2023, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began denying import permits for Cambodian macaques because of this criminal trafficking network.
However, in 2025, despite well-documented smuggling, despite clear evidence of wildlife trafficking, and despite the long-tailed macaque being officially listed as an endangered species, the United States is reportedly preparing to reopen the monkey importation pipeline from Cambodia.
This is unacceptable.
Importing monkeys from a nation that has repeatedly failed to prove it is not trading in wild-caught animals is not only extraordinarily cruel, it is dangerous. Newly released documents from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal that monkeys imported from Cambodia have carried deadly pathogens, zoonotic bacteria, and viruses into the United States, including one classified as a bioterrorism threat.
There is no justification for continuing to support a trade that is cruel, corrupt, and reckless — one that traffics endangered wildlife and risks public health. This harmful, immoral industry must end now.
Take Action Now
Join Species Unite in demanding that the United States Government immediately ban the importation of monkeys from Cambodia for use in laboratory experiments.
